Google vs. Bing: Copycat Picture on Prominent Page?
EmailABC's Bradley Blackburn blogs from New York:
Google's homepage has long featured a colorful logo on a plain white background, but now the world's biggest search engine is having a makeover. Google.com now shows a white logo over a vibrant photo that changes regularly. But for folks at Google's chief rival in search, Microsoft's Bing, the big picture looks a little familiar. Since Bing launched in June 2009, one signature feature has been a new backdrop image posted every day behind its search box. The sincerest form of flattery, right? Folks at Microsoft have noticed the apparent copycat move. On Microsoft Europe's official twitter feed, someone posted with a wink, "We've lost a background image, if found please return to bing.com ;)" In announcing the move last week, Google took pains to emphasize that their photo can be changed by users — unlike Bing's curated shots. "We're introducing a new feature that brings a whole new level of personalization to Google by letting you add a favorite photo or image to the background of the Google homepage," wrote VP Marissa Mayer on Google's company blog. Still, the similarities are striking. Even if it's just aesthetics, Microsoft must be pleased that, for a change, Google might be chasing them in search. UPDATE: After an outcry from Google users, the search engine returned to the white page as its default background this afternoon, Marissa Mayer confirmed on her twitter page, though users can still opt-in to a background image. Searches for "remove google background" were one of the most popular queries on Google today, according to site's trends page.
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I don’t need more clutter from my search engine. Unfortunately, you can’t turn it off, but it should go away soon.
Posted by: Brian Levine | June 10, 2010, 11:19 am 11:19 am
Yeah, don’t do it Google. You are advertising for Bing when you do that.
Posted by: Sher | June 10, 2010, 11:48 am 11:48 am
…I use Google but think they lifted Bing’s idea of using pictures on the main page. Attention Google: You are endorsing Bing if you continue to copy their main page format.
Posted by: flavofaze | June 10, 2010, 11:54 am 11:54 am
Unfortunately, just another waste of bandwidth.
Posted by: irengineer | June 10, 2010, 12:14 pm 12:14 pm
Can’t believe Google is copying Bing. Now I am going to use Good50.com.
Posted by: TechGuru | June 10, 2010, 12:32 pm 12:32 pm
now i have to use blackle
Posted by: person | June 10, 2010, 12:40 pm 12:40 pm
I am ready to quit as a Google search engine user. I takes longer for the Google page to load. It has taken longer for a couple weeks now, even with the irretrievable plain background. I can only suppose they were testing the background insinuator software before actually insulting us with schlock art. If I wanted that distraction, I would have switched to Bing long ago. Get rid of it. Make it as fast as you can, Google. Or just change your name to Gargle.
Posted by: Geo Singer | June 10, 2010, 12:52 pm 12:52 pm
I hate it. There is no way to disable it. If you go to a white screen, then text is outlined and hard to read. If Google does not return, I will use Bing.
Posted by: rmf | June 10, 2010, 12:56 pm 12:56 pm
My Google page looks like it always did. There isn’t any picture in the background.
Posted by: ellsbells930 | June 10, 2010, 1:36 pm 1:36 pm
This makes me super angry. I’ve been a loyal google.com user. It may be overkill but i switched to yahoo.com. i don’t like yahoo.com, but i’m using it anyway. Shame on you Google!
Posted by: Brandon | June 10, 2010, 5:31 pm 5:31 pm
I use Google and have never seen the pictures before either as RMF stated above. But I like the pictures better. The picture that accompinied this article made me want to go to Google.
Posted by: jordanpdx | June 10, 2010, 6:07 pm 6:07 pm
Oops, one more point…I actually found Googles page boring, so I did use other search engines because they were more visually welcoming.
Posted by: jordanpdx | June 10, 2010, 6:09 pm 6:09 pm
My google looks the same? no pic
Posted by: Laura | June 10, 2010, 6:13 pm 6:13 pm
My google had picture couple of hours ago, not any more. They changed it back ?
Posted by: Alex | June 10, 2010, 7:24 pm 7:24 pm
Avoid ads by using scroogle
Posted by: joseph | June 10, 2010, 8:04 pm 8:04 pm
Maybe Google is laughing at Bing less than we thought. After dealing with the 800 lb gorilla of the internet for a while, I switched to Bing when it first came out, and have no plans to change. I like the format, I love the breathtaking photography (particularly the castle today). Maybe it’s a generational thing, but I’m not in so much of a hurry to find ONE THING, and I find the little anecdotes about the photo interesting. I haven’t noticed any significant difference in page loading speeds.
Posted by: Andacar | June 10, 2010, 10:57 pm 10:57 pm
Nice product testing, Google. Apparently pretty wallpaper isn’t much of a deal maker or breaker.
Eschewing the “50 knob, 50 light, 50 cent” design aesthetics of Google’s 4th rate competition should help them to avoid the descent into irrelevancy that has been the Microsoft story for the last decade and most likely will be for the next one as well.
Posted by: eegake | June 11, 2010, 6:23 am 6:23 am
What difference does it make as long as I find what I’m looking for?
Posted by: Gerald | June 18, 2010, 11:48 am 11:48 am
WHAT PRATTLE, HASN’T MICROSOFT COPIED SINCE THEY STARTED? Macintosh, Netscape, Word Perfect, and every other “successful” product they could copy and sell through their Windows monopoly!
Posted by: Don | June 29, 2010, 11:42 am 11:42 am
this is great! google’s chasing microsoft’s bing! well, to tell you the truth, i like bing more, as it is more energetic-looking and more pleasant to the eyes than the boring plain-white color of google.
Posted by: skysailing95 | August 14, 2010, 2:52 am 2:52 am
anyway, i have replaced google as my homepage to bing.
Posted by: skysailing95 | August 14, 2010, 2:54 am 2:54 am